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Cloning hair to eliminate baldness

Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
SANTA ANA, California. By the time they're 50, 85% of American men will have significant hair loss.

It can have serious consequences: one study found nearly 75% of men feel less confident and their hair loss can lead to depression.
Now, an international team of hair restoration doctors is turning to cutting-edge science to grow more hair through cloning.
Construction worker Ric Ortega has dealt with hair loss for a while. For him, it's a health concern.

"I'm outside a lot because I work in the construction industry," said Ric. "I worry about skin cancer on the top of my head."
Ric is considering a hair cloning clinical trial with Doctor Ken Williams, a hair restoration surgeon with California-based Orange County Hair Restoration.
Dr. Wiliams is working with Hair Clone, a British company that believes it will perfect the science of cloning hair.

"The typical candidate would be someone who has had multiple surgeries and can't have any more hair transplantations, but they have lots of areas of balding," explains Dr. Williams.

Doctors would harvest 50 hair follicles and send them to a cryopreservation tank in England. Surgeons there would remove the hair shaft from the bulb, which holds cells that control growth. Then, the cells are multiplied, in a special cell culture.
"Then, when the patient is ready, they have the actual transplantation," explains Dr. Williams.

"They would let us know and we'd go through the process of replication, and getting those 50 cells will now turn in to 1500 cells."
The trial would cost Ric between $4000 and $10,000 plus airfare to England where he`d get his cloned hair. England is the only western country that allows this type of treatment.

The main challenge in cloning is that hair follicles cannot grow on their own, yet they are too complex to be grown in test tubes. There may be safety concerns that cells that induce hair may also induce tumors and once this issue is resolved, the FDA still must approve hair cloning for safety and effectiveness.
There are plans for clinical trials in the U.S. and may be approved in upcoming years.

EMOTIONAL ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH HAIR LOSS: A study revealed that men who had more profound hair loss were more dissatisfied with their appearance and were more concerned with their look than those with minimal hair loss. Studies have shown that in men who suffer from hair loss, nearly 75% of them feel less confident since the onset of hair loss, especially in dealing with the opposite sex. In extreme circumstances, hair loss can cause distress and result in depression.​
 
bobsmith

bobsmith

member
I've seen from my experience using hair from any other part of body, and planting it at the head. I don't know is it beneficial or not. But I saw lot of people trying this technique.
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
Everyone wants cloning to be available, unfortunately, it has been touted around for the last decade, usually, mice regrowing fur is the best that has been achieved.
 
Bigmac

Bigmac

Administrator
Staff member
For over a decade now different firms/researchers have been saying they believe they’re not far away from a cure and we are still waiting.

This from 2008 via the BBC.

Cells grown in the laboratory may offer a possible solution to hair loss, preliminary trials have suggested.

The technique involves taking small amounts of the remaining hair cells, multiplying them, then injecting them into bald areas.

Six months after treatment, 11 out of 19 patients had grown new hair, UK researchers told an Italian conference.

However, a UK specialist said further work would be needed so that the new hair looked right.



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It will revolutionise hair care, I think
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Dr Paul Kemp, Intercytex


Hair loss affects two-fifths of men over 50, and can be a long-term problem for some people following radiotherapy or burns.

Currently available methods of hair transplantation involve taking large clumps of remaining follicles under local anaesthetic and moving them to the desired area, a technique dependent on the amount of hair left, as no new hair is created.

The new method, called "follicular cell implantation", developed by UK firm Intercytex, claims to be able to provide a limitless supply of replacement hair cells, and, if other trials show it to be safe and effective, could be available within five years.

Doctors take only the dermal papilla cells - cells found in the follicle which are responsible for hair growth.

They are harvested from areas on the back of the head, which usually still have hair growth, and then bathed in a specially-developed chemical in the laboratory, before being placed back into bald areas of the scalp.

The early results suggest that most patients appear to benefit after just a few months, although the numbers involved in the trial are relatively small.

Dr Paul Kemp, Intercytex's Scientific Officer, said that the presence of the dermal papilla cells encouraged skin cells to start building a brand new hair follicle, or rejuvenated follicles which have stopped producing hair properly.

He said: "It will revolutionise hair care, I think. People will use this when they are starting to go bald - they'll come and see us, we'll take a few dermal papilla cells, grow them up in the lab, freeze most of them, and inject some.

"They can keep coming back as the balding process continues. I'm convinced it will work, it's just a question of fine-tuning the technique."

Other organs

He said that the same principles could one day be harnessed to grow replacement teeth, or other organs.

"Every hair is a tiny little organ, after all."

Professor Val Randall, from the University of Bradford, said that the progress made was "exciting".

She said: "To get anything growing at all is a real achievement, although it will be difficult to make the hair come back in the right way, pointing in the right direction, with the hair follicles lined up the right way."

Dr Andrew Messenger, a consultant dermatologist at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, said that if new hair follicles had been produced, then it would constitute an advance.

However, he added: "We don't yet know for certain whether these are new hair follicles, and it's actually quite hard to prove that they are, not just the result of rubbing on the scalp or another effect."
 
M

mania

member
The hair transplanting is very good and effective to give best possible results ...
 
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